Drawn to Life Wiki:Manual of Style
This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles on this wiki. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may have an example to follow when creating and editing other articles. Some reasons for having a Manual of Style include: *Pages and Articles across the Wiki become more unified. *An established style helps readers get the information they're searching for by presenting it in an organized manner. *Everything is where a user would expect it to be. *Pages become more efficient and easier to edit. *A set style helps to diminish stub articles by expanding the list of information required for a page. ---- Format and Content "Format" on this wiki refers to how article pages are constructed; the layout they follow; and the overall appearance of the final, resulting, page. Additionally, This includes the content each page contains, such as images and other media. Images Layout Grammar and Wording This wiki uses American English spelling and grammar rules within articles to better match the wording used within the Drawn to Life series. As an example, the American spelling "color" is preferred over "colour" within articles. Despite this, the source material always takes precedence. If British spelling is used within the name of an object or location then the name should not be changed or modified within articles on this Wiki. There are exceptions to this; "Grey" is preferred over the American spelling "Gray" throughout articles on this Wiki (eg. Grey Baki). Though articles on this wiki should always adhere to proper grammar rules, there are tolerated, or even preferred, exceptions to these rules. As an example, Singular "they" is acceptable when used to refer to The Hero or Creator as the gender of these characters is up to the player. Additionally, names of entities found within the Drawn to Life series are almost always capitalized, despite not being typical proper nouns. For an example, "Raposa" and "Baki" are always capitalized within articles despite being the generic name of a species; "Promise Conch" and "Banya" are always capitalized within articles despite being the names of common objects or, in the case of the latter, a creation. This capitalization method makes it clear which topics mentioned in articles may have existing pages on this wiki and aids in the differentiation between links, the subject, and standard text. There are slight exceptions to this rule. When applying a custom name to an article-link, the new name is not capitalized if the page it links to is not mentioned within the new text. In the following examples, "These enemies may only be found in the original game." "The creation is said to "truly redefine" the village." "the original game" and "the village" are not capitalized as the new names completely replace the original article name. Articles on this wiki should aim to never address the player, reader, or self directly by use of any first or second person pronouns (I'', ''me, us, we, you, etc.). Instead, articles should describe actions that The Hero or The Creator must do or take. This is to make it more clear to the reader what action is taken, or must be taken, by which specific controllable entity as well as keeping the text found on this wiki semi-formal. In many cases, sentences containing the above pronouns can be re-written to do without them entirely. If rewriting a sentence proves difficult, or if in doing so makes it unclear as to who is being addressed or referenced, The Hero; The Creator; The player; or, if unavoidable, one, may be used instead. Sub-Pages Icons Icons on this wiki are provided by the template. This template is used to insert icons within Infoboxes, sections, and within the article text itself. The template is prefered over the standard wikitext method of adding such images as the template functions using minimal code and allows all icons to be changed at once across the entire wiki rather than each page being updated one at a time. The template's usage is fairly simplistic. The standard usage is as follows: Any text replacing "ICONNAME" will be assumed as the name of an existing icon. If an icon using the inputted name exists, the corresponding icon will replace the template text when published. All icons have multiple names to prevent confusion and to allow for easier memorization of the icons included. The names used for icons do not matter and should never be replaced as long as it is a valid icon and that the resulting icon is not misused. The template is ever-changing and, as such, it would be impractical to list all available icons on this page. One may view all available icons on this wiki by editing the template itself. Icons are most often used at the start of each header at the beginning of each section within article pages. These icons are standardized within their type. A list of header icons for the various sections on this wiki will follow. More information regarding the sections themselves may be found in the following section of this guide. (Some icons may be excluded due to irrelevance.) Additionally, icons for Infoboxes or in-article usage exist. Headers / Sections Headers/sections, henceforth called "header-sections" for simplicity within this text, are title headings and all information included within them. Galleries and Media All media in articles that aren't placed inside an Infobox are to go under the "Media" section. Avoid adding images inside paragraphs or outside of their respective header sections. Typically, "Media" sections are either composed of a gallery or a gallery plus a Sound Table. If a Sound Table is present, it should always be placed after a gallery and should be separated from the gallery using a line. (Either ' ' or '----' in an editor) Galleries Except in rare cases, all galleries on the Drawn to Life Wiki use the same format and style. The standardized gallery code is: File:ComingSoon.png|Caption text. This code can be quickly and easily added to a page using the button in the source editor. Adding caption text isn't required, but is highly encouraged. The order of images in a gallery is trivial, though it is preferred to place the highest quality or largest image first. Sound Tables "Sound Tables" contain other forms of media, such as .OGG audio files. (Hence the name.) Unfortunately, there isn't a standardized format or a source editor button for adding Sound Tables. Sound Tables are simply HTML Tables and may require basic HTML knowledge to add/modify. A basic example of a Sound Table is as follows: CAPTION CAPTION 2 The number and order of files within a table are irrelevant, though files should always have a caption. Table of Contents The Table of Contents displays all headers and sub-headers used on an article and allows users to quickly navigate to them by use of clickable links. Any article with four or more headers will automatically generate a table of contents. The Table of Contents can be manipulated using magic words. :Some of which include: *'__TOC__' Moves the Table of Contents from its default location to where the magic word is placed. *'__FORCETOC__' Forces a Table of Contents even if there are less than four headers. *' ' Completely disables the Table of Contents on an article. Table of Contents are generally disabled or unused on articles on this Wiki. Most Level, Creation, Enemy, and Character articles have, on average, only 3-4 headers and the information held in these articles generally fit on a standard (1920×1080) monitor without the need of scrolling. Some pages do require a Table of Contents, generally articles with a lot of content or headers (6+). Examples of these pages include Wilfre, Music, or this Manual of Style. If the content on a page does not warrant having a Table of Contents, then add the magic word at the end of the article. This can also be done by clicking the icon in the Source Editor. A more comprehensive guide can be found on Community Central. Infoboxes Infoboxes are templates that display general information on articles. Infoboxes make gathering information and browsing page content easier by quickly providing the user with data. All Infoboxes are first-level elements and should be shown before most other templates and page content/text. *Infoboxes should always be the first template featured on an article unless a Notice is present. InfoEnemy }} Enemy Infoboxes (InfoEnemy) contain 9 input fields. (Two optional and not counted.) Name: The name of the Enemy. -- Shared by all Infoboxes. Defaults to the pagename if left blank. Image: The image, or images, to display in the Infobox. If multiple images are present, please use a tabber or SubTab! -- Shared by all Infoboxes. Caption: The caption text to display under the image or images. This field is often unused and should remain empty or excluded! -- Shared by all Infoboxes. Species: The (assumed) species of the enemy above. If the species is unknown, use the name of the enemy. -- Defaults to "N/A". Variant: The species variant of the enemy above. (Or enemy sub-type) This field is most often used for Baki enemies, but still applies to other enemies. This field should be inputted with "None", or left blank, if there is no clear variant for the enemy. For example, the "Dynamite Mole" page lists "Mole" as the species with the "Variant" field left blank. Health: The health of the enemy, or how many hits it can take before dying. This field should never be filled with plain text except in certain cases. Instead, use to display: . A single heart represents one "Health Point", or the ability to withstand an attack. So, if an enemy can withstand three attacks before dying, insert three times. Be sure to include a space in between each "Icon" template if the enemy has multiple health points! Attack: How the enemy mainly inflicts damage to the player. Allowed values are "Contact" and "Projectile". Levels: The levels the enemy appears in. Items here should, in most cases, link back to the appropriate level page. Drops: The maximum amount of coins the enemy drops when hit or killed. Enemies with multiple health points (Or "hearts" listed above) drop extra coins during each attack depending on the speed in between the attacks. Combos from other enemies should not be included! Only the subject enemy's base drops and maximum extra drops should be included. This field should never be filled with plain text except in certain cases. Instead, use , , and to display: respectively. Games: The game(s) the enemy appears in. Accecpted values are and/or (These names can be abbreviated to DTL and DTLTNC respectively). Doing so will display linked icons such as: . InfoCharacter |species = Raposa |role = Villager |age = Adult |gender = Male |home = Raposa Village |games = |fur = Unknown |boxcolor = #6b2900 }} }} Character Infoboxes (InfoEnemy) contain 9 input fields. (Two optional and not counted.) Name: The name of the character. -- Shared by all Infoboxes. Defaults to the pagename if left blank. Image: The image, or images, to display in the Infobox. If multiple images are present, please use a tabber or SubTab! -- Shared by all Infoboxes. Caption: The caption text to display under the image or images. This field is often unused and should remain empty or excluded! -- Shared by all Infoboxes. Species: The species of the character above. -- Defaults to "Raposa". Gender: The gender of the character. -- Defaults to "N/A". Age: The age of the character. Age is determined by the type of character sprite (for Raposa). There are five available age entries. These are, "Child", "Teenager", "Young Adult", "Adult", and "Elder". -- Defaults to "N/A". Fur Color: The fur color of the character. For male Raposa, these colors are orange, light grey, yellow, brown, dark grey, tan, and red-orange. Entries for male Raposa list only the color and nothing else. For female Raposa, fur color is always orange but hair color differs. Because of this, female Raposa characters should have hair color mentioned in addition to their (orange) fur color. On article pages for female Raposa, fur color is always mentioned before hair color, and entries are separated by a line-break ( ). -- Defaults to "Orange". Example: Orange Fur Brown Hair Home: The home of the character. In most cases, this is the village where the Raposa resides by the end of the game. "Turtlerock" is not a valid entry for this field due to the circumstances of the game's story. -- Defaults to "N/A". Role: The role of the character in the story. For example, Cindi, Samuel, and Penelope are all villagers in their respective villages and, as such, have the role "Villager" in their infoboxes. Other entries may also be inputted based on the character; "Role" is not a strict field and has little to no standard. However, one should not input assumed roles or story information related to the character such as "protagonist" or "antagonist". Known Status: The life status of the character. This entry informs the reader whether or not the character is known to be alive by the events of the game's ending. This should always be "Alive" unless the character's death is shown on screen, mentioned in dialog, or known by other official means. The status for characters does not change in response to the ending of Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter unless the character is dead even after rebooting the game. Again, this entry only lists the last known status, so the effects of the game's ending has no coloration here. This is also to avoid spoilers on minor characters' pages. -- Defaults to "Alive". This field has been deprecated but is still in widely in use. Games: The game(s) the enemy appears in. Accecpted values are and/or (These names can be abbreviated to DTL and DTLTNC respectively). Doing so will display linked icons such as: . InfoBuilding InfoCreation InfoLevel InfoVillage InfoGate Notices Notices are templates that display important information about the content of an article or page on the Wiki. Additional information regarding the nature of the template can be seen if the user expands the template. All Notices are top-level elements and should be shown before all else on a page. Generally, there should be no separation between this and other elements. Speedy Delete This is a temporary notice that is used on pages that have either been created out of vandalization or by accidental terms. This template is a more "severe" version of the Delete Notice. To use this template on a page type: This notice also supports extra parameters for displaying the reason behind the proposed deletion of a page. would set REASON as the reason for the proposed deletion of the page. Delete This is a temporary notice that is used on pages that have either been created out of vandalization or by accidental terms. To use this template on a page type: This notice also supports extra parameters for displaying the reason behind the proposed deletion of a page. would set REASON as the reason for the proposed deletion of the page. Spoiler This is a permanent notice that is used on pages that have spoiler content from either game. To use this template on a page type: This notice also supports extra parameters for displaying which game is spoiled by the content within the article. would alert users who haven't played GAME that the article could spoil aspects of the story. Quality This is a temporary notice that is used on articles that do not follow the design guidelines found within this page. To use this template on a page type: Stub This is a temporary notice that is used on pages that are too short to stand on their own or are under 300 bytes. To use this template on a page type: This notice also supports extra parameters for displaying which elements of the page are missing, or are too short. would set REASON as being the reason why the page is considered a stub. Non-Canon This is a permanent notice that is used on pages that the community may deem to be "Non-Canon" or "Unofficial". To use this template on a page type: Limbo This is a temporary notice that is used on pages which fate is being decided by the Wiki community through the article's talk-page. Pages with this notice should have all other categories and links removed until the page's fate is decided. To use this template on a page type: This notice also supports extra parameters for displaying which game is spoiled by the content within the article. would set EXPLANATION as the explanation or proposed reason for merging or deleting the article. Archive NavBoxes + Directories Navboxes are templates that help users navigate through similar page-types by providing a list of links and a directory tree when expanded. These templates should be the last element used on an article and should also be separated from the element before it (usually the "Media" section) by using an ' ' HTML tag. NavBoxes should match with the Infobox used on the page, if one exists. For example, on character pages should be used in correspondence with . Parameters This is a smart template, meaning it will try to organize itself automatically if no user support is received. Still, when implementing this template on pages, it is best to fill out the parameters manually as it is not always accurate on its own. Parameters are used within this template to customize the Directory data found in the bottom bar of the expanded NavBox. Character Pages The standard parameter/directory structure for (the NavBox used on character pages) is: For example, Mick's page would use: ''' to display: within the NavBox. Other Templates Page Specific Creations Enemies Levels Buildings Villages Example Pages